02-19-2012, 10:18 PM
Quote:I've just realised that this is my 1000th post on RAT! hock: Not bad after nearly ten years...Congrats!
Quote:Which is the more accurate translation of 'locum artis faucibus'? The word artis here seems odd, and I can't figure it out: at a guess I'd connect it with art, and say the position was 'shaped like a defile' or something... :???:Grant seems to think that it's an ablative of place. I would agree. "He selected a location in a narrow pass and blocked by a wood at the rear".
Tacitus is a tricky chap to translate. He usually requires a degree of interpretation to supplement a purely literal translation. I notice J.C. Yardley's recent-ish Oxford World's Classics version (2008) goes: "He selected a location where there was a narrow defile and he had the cover of a wood to his rear".